Mainly Norfolk: English
Folk and Other Good Music

The Rich Man's Daughter

Packie Manus Byrne sang The Rich Man's Daughter
to Tony Engle and Mike Yates in London in 1974.
It was released in 1977 on his Topic album
Songs of a Donegal Man.
Mike Yates commented in the sleeve notes:

Several ballads which Professor Child included in his
English and Scottish Popular Ballads
are concerned with the theme of incest between a brother and his sister and in
both
Sheath and Knife (Child 16) and
Lizie Wan (Child 51)
the ballads end with the sister’s death at the hands of her brother. Recent
research has led Professor R.S. Thomson to suggest that these ballads stem
from a scandal which occurred in the French Court of Henry of Navarre and which,
no doubt. was soon a topic of conversation throughout Europe.
The Rich Man’s Daughter
clearly belongs to this tradition. However, as with
Young Alvin,
Packie appears to be the first person from whom this ballad has been collected.
The text, which is full of romantic imagery, would seem to date from the latter
half of the 19th century, although it is difficult to imagine that a poem
dealing with an incestuous relationship could have been written at this time
and, accordingly, one is tempted to believe that the piece may in fact be even
more recent. Packie learnt the ballad in 1946 from Tom O’Connor of Cork when
they were both employed as cattle drovers and he uses an air which is related
to the well-known Boyne Water family of tunes.

Peta Webb sang The Rich Man's Daughter
in 1986 on her and Pete Cooper's album
The Heart Is True,
and in 2000 on her and Ken Hall's Fellside CD
As Close As Can Be.
She commented in the latter album's notes:

The Rich Man's Daughter, from Packie Byrne, Co. Donegal, is a grim
but gripping ballad of incest and betrayal unexpected from such a wise, witty
and entertaining character. Unlike the classic Child Ballads this offers no
retribution. Only the song shames the sinner.